AnobiumPunctatum

I was really suprised that I did not find a build log about the Naval Cutter Alert on MSW 2.0. I know that there exist some pictures of a model on the old MSW The first source for building a model of this small vessel are Peter Goodwins book "The Naval Cutter Alert, 1777", published by PhoenixPublications Inc. 1991 and the two original drawing of her sister Rattlesnake (1776) which you will find on the homepage of the NMM. There also exist two paintings of Joseph Marshall of the ship, which are exhibited in the Science Museum, London. I found also an Sheer and Profile drawing of Alert which was published by the NRG. The sheer and profile of the NRG and Goodwin differ from the original drawing. They show the maximum width of the ship not at frame 0. Perhaps my Engish is to bad, but I could not find any reason for this. So I decide to draw my own lines. which were based on Goodwin and the original drawing. The drawing is not finished, because I decided only to draw what I need for my build. Next step was the keel. Goodwin shows for the pass between keel and lower apron a solution which I could not find on any original cutter drawings. For the after deadwood he does not offer any possible solution I decide to follow the original drawing of Cheerful 1806 for the pass between keel and lower apron. The flat joint at the foremost keel part is shown on original drawings of this period (for example on HMS Triton). For the after deadwood I decided to use a bearing line. I am not sure if this is common for ships of this period. The next picture shows my completed keel drawing: Goodwin uses for his design the common frameing pattern of double and single frames. I am not sure that this design was used for the original ship. For the Swan class sloops only single frames were used. This you will also find on the drawing of Cheerful and other cutters. Also the wide of the frame parts are not clear. In his drawing he uses much smaller futtocks than he descibed in the text part of the book. In his "Construction and Fitting of Sailing Man of War" he gives a third solution. What now? Alert is a practice model for me to get the experience to continue my HMS Fly build. Marshall shows on his paintings an simplified frameing design, so I decided to use this. Every frame is 8'' width followed by 8'' space. For the port side I like to show the clinker planking. On my drawing the final design for the last frame and the hawse pieces is missing in the moment. The drawings for every 31frames and 21cant frames are finished. I am not sure in the moment if I will use the original practice with chocks or the simplified method of Harold Hahn for my build. It will be very nice if you have further information about the cutters of this time. I found the Marmaduke Stalkartt on Google-books, but they didn't scan the plates. Perhaps one of the MSW user can help me to confirm my decisions.

I found your log this morning. A really wonderful build.

Randall, these differences are quite normal. If you print out the parts on your deskjet, you will see that it makes a difference if you use landscape or portrait format. They are very small (0.1) and are up to the manufacturing process of the paper. Another source of the porblem is the thikness of the line. If I remember right they are about 0.25mm. If you saw out a part and sand to the correct size, you see normally more than the half of the line. 0.25mm in sum are very small but if you glue more than one part together your get very quick a difference of 1 mm and more. I didn't count how many deadwoods I have casted off until I understand how to work with these problems: Try to use allways the same paper and paper direction and sand your parts until the whole line is nearly invisble. And the rest is handcraft - so small differences are totally normal.

Really interesting start of your project.

Really wonderful build

Merry Christmas, Greg. Your beautyful pictures are a wonderful gift.

Hi Daniel, everything works well. My drawings for the Alert are nearly finshed and I started the build yesterday. My next drawing project will be HMS Triton with single frames. But now I am happy that I can work with timber again.

Really wonderful figurehead. Well done

Well done. YOur hull looks very impressive

Really nice painting job.

Very clever jig.

Hello Daniel, I have not thought about publishing the Alert drawings. The base of my work are the AotS Book "The naval cutter Alert, 1777" of Peter Goodwin and the NMM drawings of the Rattlesnake. There are some details in the book where in my opinion other solutions are more believable. I draw with Autocad only in 2D - 3D will be the model of timber in the future.

Daniel, I didn't work on my HMS Fly since February. When I will go back to her, I don't know. It does not make fun to start in autumn and stop the build in spring for job reasons. In the moment I work on drawings for the Naval Cutter Alert/Rattlesnake. In the summer I got the NMM drawings of HMS Triton. I like to build the model with the frameing of the original ship, so I have to draw the frames by myself. If I find time to work more continuosly I will reopen my shipyard.

Hi Daniel, that's a really nice progress.

Rusty, that's a very nice progress. Your section will be very impressive, especially in that big scale

Wow, really great work. I hope that I can see your model in real life.

Very nice progress, Mark

Hi Ed, I found your new log today. It's a very interesting read about a ship and a time whre I don't have any knowledge. I will follow your log with grat interest.

I hope that I have the possibility to see this fantastic model sometimes in real life.

Dan, very nice progress. It's allways a pleasure to read in your log.

Aldo, your hull is looking excellent. Really nice progress. After a longer break -real life is sometimes the enemy of the spare time- I work on my drawings again.

Congrats to this beautyful model.

A short info. Yesterday I got the message that my copy of the new colored NMM drawing is in the post. So I can start with the drawings for the POB very soon. Is it a good idea only to mark the center line and some parallel lines at the bulkhead? At the center board I will mark the fore or after position of the bulkhead and also some parallel lines. I think that every model builder likes to use another thickness of the plywood and prefers another scale for his model. Chuck, you have much more experience in drawing plans for ship modelers. If this is not a good idea please let me know.

Aldo, it's nice to see your progress. I am allways waiting for my new colored copy of the NMM. I hope to get it in a week or two.

Really nice planking job. It's looking great, Tony.